Management of mobile objects

ABSTRACT

An embodiment of the invention may include a method, computer program product and computer system for managing mobile objects. The embodiment may manage, by a first computing system, a plurality of mobile objects moving within a geographic space. Managing the plurality of mobile objects may assisting with movement of the plurality of mobile objects. The embodiment may determine whether a first mobile object among the plurality of mobile objects is a real mobile object based on a first sensor information received from the first mobile object. The embodiment may use information received from the first mobile object in managing the plurality of mobile objects moving within the geographic space based on determining that the first mobile object is the real mobile object.

BACKGROUND

The present invention relates to management of the movement of mobileobjects.

Conventionally, a high-speed driving support and automobile drivingsystem is known that communicates with and receives information from aplurality of automobiles. Such a system acquires event informationconcerning accidents or obstructions on the road and maps thisinformation onto a map along with the position of automobiles, andreferences automobile position information, automobile characteristicinformation, and driver characteristic information to transmit suitableevent information to each automobile, as shown in International PatentApplication WO2016/203385. Furthermore, devices mounted in vehicles orthe like are known that detect abnormalities in GPS data, as shown inInternational Patent Application WO2015/002223 and Chinese PatentApplication CN104880722.

The hardware and software installed in the vehicles using such a systemare often primitive, and are therefore easy to modify and alter.Accordingly, even if such a system includes functions such as useridentification and automobile information registration, there are caseswhere the system identifies mobile devices, simulators, and the likethat exchange information in the manner of a traveling automobile to beactual travelling automobiles. This “spoofing” causes instability in theoperation of the system, and also causes a drop in the reliability ofthe system due to the modification or falsification of driving records.

BRIEF SUMMARY

An embodiment of the invention may include a method, computer programproduct and computer system for managing mobile objects. The embodimentmay manage, by a first computing system, a plurality of mobile objectsmoving within a geographic space. Managing the plurality of mobileobjects may assisting with movement of the plurality of mobile objects.The embodiment may determine whether a first mobile object among theplurality of mobile objects is a real mobile object based on a firstsensor information received from the first mobile object. The embodimentmay use information received from the first mobile object in managingthe plurality of mobile objects moving within the geographic space basedon determining that the first mobile object is the real mobile object.This may improve the stable operation and reliability of the system at alow cost, without using other mobile objects, apparatuses, or the like.

In a further embodiment may the first sensor information includesposition information of the first mobile object detected by the firstmobile object. This embodiment may judge whether the first mobile objectis real by using the estimation error of the first sensor information,and may therefore be operable to easily introduce the system. Thisembodiment may judge whether the first mobile object is real by usingthe first sensor information of a sensor of the first mobile object, andmay therefore be operable to improve the stable operation andreliability of the system at a low cost, without using other mobileobjects, apparatuses, or the like.

A further embodiment may determine whether a first mobile object amongthe plurality of mobile objects is a real mobile object includes bydetermining whether the first mobile object is a real mobile objectbased on an estimation error of the first sensor information.

A further embodiment may determine an estimated position of the firstmobile object by matching the position information of the first mobileobject with geographic data. The further embodiment may determinewhether a first mobile object among the plurality of mobile objects is areal mobile object by calculating the estimation error of the firstsensor information from a position corresponding to the positioninformation of the first mobile object and the estimated position. Thisembodiment may be operable to efficiently judge whether the first mobileobject is real, using a map matching process performed by the system.

A further embodiment may acquire a normal error range associated withthe position of the first mobile object. The further embodiment maydetermine that the first mobile object is not a real mobile object, on acondition that the estimation error of the first sensor information isoutside the normal error range. This embodiment may use an estimationdifference corresponding to the position of the first mobile object, andmay therefore be operable to more accurately judge whether the firstmobile object is real.

A further embodiment may store the normal error range for every positionin the geographic space in a context database, based on an estimationerror of position information detected by at least one mobile objectamong the plurality of mobile objects based on the at least one mobileobject having moved in the geographic space. This embodiment mayaccumulate the normal error range corresponding to the position of thefirst mobile object in association with the position, and may thereforebe operable to more accurately judge whether the first mobile object isreal.

A further embodiment may store the normal error range for every positionin the geographic space comprises independently storing information foreach of at least one of: a type of the at least one mobile object, amodel of the at least one mobile object, and a condition of theposition. This embodiment may accumulate the normal error rangecorresponding to the position of the first mobile object in associationwith the position, and may therefore be operable to more accuratelyjudge whether the first mobile object is real.

A further embodiment may determine whether a first mobile object amongthe plurality of mobile objects is a real mobile object by determiningthat the first mobile object is not a real mobile object in response tothe position of the first mobile object overlapping at the same timingwith a position of a second mobile object among the plurality of mobileobjects.

A further embodiment may determine whether a first mobile object amongthe plurality of mobile objects is a real mobile object by determiningwhether the first mobile object is a real mobile object based on aresult of a comparison between behavior of the first mobile object andbehavior of a second mobile object positioned within a predetermineddistance of and on the same route as the first mobile object among theplurality of mobile objects.

A further embodiment may determine whether a first mobile object amongthe plurality of mobile objects is a real mobile object by determiningthat the first mobile object is a real mobile object in response to thefirst mobile object being detected at a position corresponding to theposition information of the first mobile object according to a sensorprovided in the geographic space or in a second mobile object among theplurality of mobile objects.

A further embodiment may request that a second mobile object among theplurality of mobile objects check whether the first mobile object ispresent at a position corresponding to the position information of thefirst mobile object in response to a judgment that the first mobileobject is possibly not a real mobile object. This embodiment may usesensor information differing from the sensor information output by amobile object that has been judged as possibly not being real, and maytherefore be operable to more accurately and more efficiently judgewhether the first mobile object is real.

A further embodiment may perform information processing for each of theplurality of mobile objects comprising processing information for asecond mobile object among the plurality of mobile objects whileexcluding a presence of the first mobile object, in response to thefirst mobile object being judged as not being real. This embodiment mayexcludes information concerning a mobile object that has been judged asbeing spoofed, and may therefore be operable to improve stability of thesystem.

A further embodiment may wherein the information processing includesperforming information processing relating to mobile object agentscorresponding respectively to the plurality of mobile objects.

A further embodiment may identify. whether the first mobile object is avirtual mobile object that has been registered in advance. The furtherembodiment may determine whether the first mobile object is a realmobile object based on determining that the first mobile object isidentified as not being a virtual mobile object.

The summary clause does not necessarily describe all necessary featuresof the embodiments of the present invention. The present invention mayalso be a sub-combination of the features described above.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a system 100 according to an embodiment of the presentinvention and a map area corresponding to a geographic space managed bythe system 100.

FIG. 2 shows a subsystem 200 according to the embodiment of the presentinvention and a map area corresponding to a region A managed by thesubsystem 200.

FIG. 3 shows a first exemplary configuration of the system 100 accordingto the present embodiment.

FIG. 4 shows management of events by the event server 210 and the mobileobject server 220 according to one embodiment.

FIG. 5 shows management of mobile object by the mobile object server 220and object server 230 according to one embodiment.

FIG. 6 shows an operational flow of an exemplary configuration of thesystem 100 according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 7 shows an operational flow of S620 according to the presentembodiment.

FIG. 8 shows an operational flow of S650 according to the presentembodiment.

FIG. 9 shows an illustrative example of an event list.

FIG. 10 shows an illustrative example of a candidate event list.

FIG. 11 shows an illustrative example of a notification event list.

FIG. 12 shows a mobile object 10 and events according to one embodiment.

FIG. 13 shows an operational flow of S660 according to the presentembodiment.

FIG. 14 shows a second exemplary configuration of the system 100according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 15 shows a third exemplary configuration of the system 100according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 16 shows an exemplary configuration of a portion of the operationalflow of the system 100 according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 17 shows a fourth exemplary configuration of the system 100according to the resent embodiment.

FIG. 18 shows a computer according to an embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detailwith reference to the accompanying Figures.

Hereinafter, example embodiments of the present invention will bedescribed. The example embodiments shall not limit the inventionaccording to the claims, and the combinations of the features describedin the embodiments are not necessarily essential to the invention.

FIG. 1 shows a system 100 and a map area corresponding to a geographicspace managed by the system 100, according to an embodiment of thepresent invention. The system 100 manages a geographic space thatincludes routes on which a mobile object 10 moves. The system 100 isoperable to divide the geographic space into a plurality of regions andmanage these regions. A mobile object 10 may move on routes includingland routes, sea routes, and/or air routes, for example. The geographicspace may be land, sea, or air space that includes the routes on whichthe mobile object travels. The mobile objects 10 may be manned/unmannedautomobiles, motorbikes, bicycles, humans having a digital device,airplanes, vessels, drones, or the like.

FIG. 1 shows an automobile as an example of the mobile object 10, whichmoves along roads as examples of land routes. The system 100 includes aplurality of subsystems 200 that respectively manage the plurality ofregions. FIG. 1 shows an example in which the map area is divided intosix regions from region A to region F, and six subsystems 200respectively manage these six regions.

System 100 comprises a plurality of event servers 210, a plurality ofmobile object servers 220, a plurality of object servers 230, and aplurality of passenger servers 240. According to the embodiment of FIG.1, each of the subsystems 200 may include at least one of the pluralityof event servers 210 and one of the plurality of mobile object servers220.

The event server 210 manages events occurring in each region of thegeographic space. In one embodiment, the event server 210 of subsystem200 assigned to region A may manage events in region A. The plurality ofmobile object servers 220 respectively assigned to a plurality ofregions in a geographic space manage the mobile objects 10 in each ofthe plurality of regions. In one embodiment, the mobile object server220 assigned to region A may manages mobile objects 10 located in regionA. The object server 230 manages information of the mobile objects 10regardless of the location of the mobile objects 10. The passengerserver 240 manages information of at least one passenger riding on themobile objects 10.

Each of the subsystems 200 may be implemented on one or more servers. Inone embodiment, each event server 210 and mobile object server 220 maybe implemented on one server. In one embodiment, a set of an eventserver 210 and a mobile object server 220 in a subsystem 200 may beimplemented by one server. Portions of the system 100 other than thesubsystems 200 may also be implemented on one or more servers. In oneembodiment, each object server 230 and passenger server 240 may beimplemented on one server. In another embodiment, a set of objectservers 230 and a set of passenger servers 240 may be each implementedby one server. In yet another embodiment, all of the object servers 230and the passenger servers 240 may be implemented on one server. Theseservers may exist at any point on a network including the Internet, asubscriber network, a cellular network, or a desired combination ofnetworks. The servers may be computers or other types of dataprocessors, and may be dedicated servers, or may be shared servers thatperform other operations.

The system 100 acquires the positions of a mobile object 10 from themobile object 10, and the mobile object server 220 managing the regionthat includes the acquired position of the mobile object 10 may managethe movement of this mobile object 10. The system 100 acquiresinformation of events that have occurred to the mobile object 10 and/oron the road outside, and the event server 210 managing the regionincluding the position where such an event has occurred may manage thestate of the event.

This event may include information about accidents, obstructions,closure, limitation, status, or construction on the road, or informationabout the weather, temperature, buildings, shops, or parking lots nearthe road. In response to a setting or a request from the mobile object10, the subsystem 200 may provide notification about the eventinformation to the mobile object 10 that made the request. For example,if the mobile object 10 is moving on a route in a geographical areacorresponding to region A, then the mobile object sever 220 managingregion A provides this mobile object 10 with the notification about theevent relating to the route.

Since the map area is divided into a plurality of regions, despite themobile object 10 simply moving on a route, the region corresponding tothe position of the mobile object 10 might change. FIG. 1 shows anexample in which the mobile object 10 is driving on a road such that theposition of the mobile object 10 moves from region A to region B on theregions. In this case, according to the movement of the mobile object10, the system 100 may transfer the information concerning the mobileobject 10 from the mobile object server 220 managing region A to themobile object server 220 managing region B, and may also transfer themanagement of the mobile object 10 to the mobile object server 220managing region B.

FIG. 2 shows a subsystem 200 and a map area corresponding to a region Amanaged by the subsystem 200, according to an embodiment of the presentinvention. The event server 210 manages at least one event agent, andexecutes each event agent to manage events on routes in a regionassigned to the event server 210. An “agent” may be a software entityhaving specific data, and may operable to receive a message (e.g.command), and return a result of the message. Each region of theplurality of regions of geographic space includes at least a portion ofone area of the plurality of areas. In this embodiment, the regionassigned to the event server 210 is the same as the region assigned tothe mobile object server 220. However, in other embodiments, theseregions may be different.

In the embodiment of FIG. 2, the region A, which is the region assignedto the event server 210, is divided into 16 areas and 16 areas areassigned to each of the event agents EA1-EA16. The event server 210executes each of the event agents EA1-EA16 to manage events occurring onroutes of each area of region A. For example, the event agent EA2 maymanage a “closure” event on an area corresponding to EA2 on the map, andthe event agent EA4 may manage a “speed limit” event on an areacorresponding to EA4 as shown in FIG. 2.

The plurality of mobile object servers 220 may include at least onemobile object server 220 including one or more mobile object agents,each of which is assigned to each of the mobile objects 10. In theembodiment of FIG. 2, the mobile object server 220 includes three mobileobject agents MOAs 1-3 assigned to three mobile objects 10 in theassigned region A. The mobile object server 220 executes each of themobile object agents MOA1-MOA3 to manage the mobile objects 10 travelingon the region A.

FIG. 3 shows an exemplary configuration of the system 100, according toan embodiment of the present invention. The system 100 may be operableto communicate with each of a plurality of mobile objects 10 to send andreceive the information used to manage the mobile objects 10. The system100 may be operable to acquire map data and/or information exchangedwith the mobile objects 10, through the Internet, a subscriber network,a cellular network, or any desired combination of networks. The system100 includes an acquiring section 110, a dividing section 130, a regionmanager 140, a receiving section 150, a transmitting section 152, agateway apparatus 160, a plurality of subsystems 200, a plurality ofobject servers 230, and a plurality of passenger servers 240.

The acquiring section 110 may be operable to acquire map datacorresponding to the geographical areas where a mobile object 10 ispositioned, from an external database 30, for example. In response tothe map being updated, the acquiring section 110 may acquire some or allof the updated map data. The acquiring section 110 may be operable toacquire the map data from the Internet, a subscriber network, a cellularnetwork, or any desired combination of networks. The system 100 may beoperable to store the map data in advance.

The acquiring section 110 may further acquire an event that has occurredwithin the geographic space to be managed by the system 100. In thiscase, the acquiring section 110 may acquire, accident information,traffic information, weather information, time information, etc.

The dividing section 130 may be operable to communicate with theacquiring section 110 and divide the map area into a plurality ofregions. In this embodiment, the dividing section 130 generates twogroups of regions by dividing an original map area into a plurality ofregions.

The region manager 140 may be operable to store information concerningthe plurality of regions including the regions resulting from thedivision. The region manager 140 may be operable to specify thesubsystem 200 managing the region that includes the position of themobile object 10, in response to receiving the position of the mobileobject 10. The region manager 140 may be implemented on one or moreservers. The region manager 140 includes an storage section 142 and adetermining section 146.

The storage section 142 may be operable to communicate with the dividingsection 130 and store information concerning the plurality of firstregions and the plurality of second regions resulting from the divisionby the dividing section 130. The storage section 142 may store settingvalues or the like of the system 100.

The storage section 142 may store intermediate data, calculationresults, threshold values, parameters, and the like that are generatedby or used in the operations of the system 100. In response to a requestfrom any component within the system 100, the storage section 142 maysupply the data stored therein to the component making the request. Thestorage section 142 may be a computer readable storage medium such as anelectric storage device, a magnetic storage device, an optical storagedevice, an electromagnetic storage device, or a semiconductor storagedevice.

The determining section 146 may be operable to communicate with thestorage section 142, and determine one region from the plurality ofregions (e.g., regions A-F of FIG. 1) in which each of the mobileobjects 10 is located based on the position information of the mobileobject 10 and geographic information of the plurality of regions. Thedetermining section 146 may identify a route or position in the map areamanaged by the system 100 that corresponds to the position informationof the mobile object 10.

The determining section 146 may store the position information of thismobile object 10 and/or information of the determined region in thestorage section 142, in association with this mobile object 10. Thedetermining section 146 may store a history of the position informationof this mobile object 10 and/or a history of the determined mobileobject server 220 in the storage section 142. The determining section146 may be a circuit, a shared or dedicated computer readable mediumstoring computer readable program instructions executable by a shared ordedicated processor, etc.

The receiving section 150 may be operable to receive informationtransmitted from each of a plurality of mobile objects 10. Each mobileobject 10 may transmit information at designated time intervals, and thereceiving section 150 may sequentially receive this transmittedinformation. In this embodiment, the receiving section 150 may receivecar probe data from each mobile object 10 as the information. The carprobe data may include information detected by the mobile object 10,such as position information of the mobile object 10.

In one embodiment, the position information may include longitude andlatitude (and optionally altitude information) of the mobile object 10in an absolute coordinate system. In another embodiment, the mobileobject 10 may determine its location in the absolute coordinate systemby using GPS, and the determining section 146 receiving the positioninformation may determine a route on which the mobile object 10 existsand a specific location of the route at which the mobile object 10exists based on the position information. Alternatively, the mobileobject 10 may include such detailed position information in the carprobe data.

The receiving section 150 may communicate with the plurality of mobileobjects 10 and receive the car probe data of each mobile object 10, viathe Internet 40. The receiving section 150 may receive the car probedata of the plurality of mobile objects 10 through wirelesscommunication, a subscriber network, a cellular network, or any desiredcombination of networks.

The transmitting section 152 may be operable to transmit eventinformation to each of the mobile objects 10 according to settings, forexample. The transmitting section 152 may transmit informationconcerning the route on which the mobile object 10 is expected totravel. The transmitting section 152 may communicate with the mobileobjects 10 and transmit each type of information to the mobile objects10 via the Internet 40. The transmitting section 152 may transmit eachtype of information to the mobile objects 10 through wirelesscommunication, a subscriber network, a cellular network, or any desiredcombination of networks.

The gateway apparatus 160 may be operable to transfer communicationbetween the plurality of subsystems 200 and the plurality of mobileobjects 10. The gateway apparatus 160 may communicate with the receivingsection 150 and receive the information transmitted by each mobileobject 10.

The gateway apparatus 160 may communicate with the region manager 140and demand the transfer destination for each piece of informationreceived from the mobile objects 10, of the region manager 140. Inresponse to this request, the gateway apparatus 160 may receive from theregion manager 140 the information of the subsystem 200 managing theregion on which the mobile object 10 exists. The gateway apparatus 160may transfer the information received from the mobile object 10 to thesubsystem 200 that is to manage the mobile object 10. In other words,the gateway apparatus 160 may transfer the information received fromeach mobile object 10 to the subsystem 200 determined by the regionmanager 140.

The gateway apparatus 160 may communicate with each of the subsystems200, and receive the information transmitted by each subsystem 200. Thegateway apparatus 160 may communicate with the transmitting section 152and supply the transmitting section 152 with the information receivedfrom each subsystem 200, such that this information is transferred tothe mobile objects 10 designated for each subsystem 200.

The gateway apparatus 160 may include a plurality of gateway devices,and may quickly perform transfer between the plurality of subsystems 200and the plurality of mobile objects 10. In this case, the receivingsection 150 may function as a load balancer that supplies theinformation from the mobile objects 10, such that the load is spreadamong the plurality of gateways. The load balancer may sequentiallysupply information from the mobile objects 10 to the gateways havinglighter loads. The gateway apparatus 160 may be a network that providesa connection between a plurality of networks using the same or differenttypes of protocols.

A plurality of subsystems 200 may be operable to communicate with theregion manager 140 and the gateway apparatus 160 and to respectivelymanage a plurality of regions in a geographic space. Each subsystem 200is operable to manage mobile objects 10 that travel routes in itsmanaging region and to manage events on its managing region.

As described, each subsystem 200 may include the event server 210 andthe mobile object server 220. The event server 210 manages eventsoccurring on its managing region with the plurality of the event agents.In one embodiment, the event server 210 may perform, through the eventagent, (i) registration, update and/or deletion of events, (ii)registration, update and/or deletion of candidate events, and (iii)provision of event information.

The mobile object server 220 manages the plurality of the mobile objects10 traveling on its managing region with the plurality of the mobileobject agents. In one embodiment, the mobile object server 220 mayperform, through the mobile object agent, (i) processing of the carprobe data, (ii) update of information of the mobile object, and (iii)provision of information to the mobile object. For example, the mobileobject server 220 may execute the mobile object agent to collectinformation of events from at least one event server 210, and providethe mobile object 10 with information that assists the mobile object 10with traveling in the geographic space.

A plurality of object servers 230 including at least one object server230 may communicate with the gate way 160 and include an object agent(OA) containing information of the mobile object 10. An object agent maycorrespond to each mobile object 10 and contain information thereof. Inone embodiment, the object agent may contain (i) information, by region,of which subsystem currently manages a mobile object agent of the mobileobject 10, (ii) an identification (ID) of the mobile object 10, (iii) anID of a passenger of the mobile object 10, and (iv) a characteristic ofthe mobile object 10 (e.g., model/version information, width, length,and/or height of the mobile object 10).

The object server 230 may perform, through the object agent, (i)provision and/or update of information of the mobile object 10, (ii)registration, update, and/or deletion of the ID of passenger riding onthe mobile object 10, (iii) provision and/or update of the informationof the region of the mobile object 10, and (iv) provision of informationneeded for generation of a new mobile object agent by the mobile objectserver 220.

At least one passenger server 240 of a plurality of passenger serversmay communicate with the gateway apparatus 160, and include a passengeragent that contains information of at least one passenger. A passengeragent may correspond to each passenger or candidate passenger of mobileobjects 10, and contain information thereof. In one embodiment, theobject agent may contain an ID of a passenger and a characteristic ofthe passenger (e.g., information of age, gender, type, and the like oflicense of the passenger). The passenger server 240 may perform, throughthe passenger agent, provision and/or update of information of thepassengers.

As described above, the system 100 of the present embodiment may managethe mobile objects by utilizing the mobile object agents in each mobileobject server 220, and manage the events by utilizing the event agent ineach event server 210. According to the system 100 of the embodiment,the system 100 can separately manage information relating to the mobileobjects 10 and events on the geographic map with a plurality of kinds ofservers. Furthermore, the plurality of mobile object servers 220 cansmoothly transfer the management of the mobile objects 10 travelingacross the regions via the mobile object agents, thereby improving theefficiency of the whole system 100. In addition, according to the system100 of the embodiment, each event server 210 divides event management inone region among the plurality of event agents and provides the mobileobject agent with event information, thereby improving the efficiency ofevent management in the region (e.g., improving response time of eventsearch) and thus event notification to the mobile objects 10. Inaddition, the system 100 can provide the mobile object agent withinformation of mobile object 10 by the object agent of the object server230. The system 100 can also provide the mobile object agent withinformation of passengers of the mobile objects 10 by the passengeragent of the passenger server 240.

FIG. 4 shows management of events by the event server 210 and the mobileobject server 220, according to an embodiment of the present invention.In this embodiment, a mobile object 10 is traveling on a target route onregion A and transmitting a car probe data including the positioninformation to the event server 210 managing region A with the car probedata via a gateway apparatus, such as the gateway apparatus 160. Theevent server 210 manages event information through each event agentbased on the car probe data from the mobile objects on region A. Forexample, each event agent may manage an event list (containinginformation of an event and an influence event for routes on the areamanaged by the event agent) and a candidate event list (containinginformation of candidates of an event for routes on the area managed bythe event agent).

In the embodiment of FIG. 4, the event agent EA2 manages events of anarea (indicated as “DA2” on the region A of FIG. 4) by the event list ofthe event agent EA2 and the candidate event list of the event agent EA2based on car probe data from the mobile object 10 on the area DA2. Forexample, the event agent EA2 assigned to the area DA2 is executable togenerate an event based on the information from the mobile object 10.

In one embodiment, each mobile object server 220 is operable to receiveinformation from the mobile object 10 in the region A assigned to themobile object server 220. The mobile object server 220 determines thetarget route where the mobile object 10 is located. The mobile objectserver 220 sends the information to one event server 210 assigned to aregion A where the mobile object 10 is located, and thereby requests theevent agent EA2 assigned to the area DA2 where the target route islocated to send an event list containing information of an event on thetarget route and the influence event of the target route.

The mobile object server 220 executes the mobile object agent MOA1 forthe mobile object 10 to provide the mobile object 10 with informationthat assists the mobile object 10 with traveling in the area DA2 basedon the information of the event on the other route and the influenceevent of the target route. In the embodiment of FIG. 4, the mobileobject agent MOA1 receives, from the event agent EA2, the eventinformation of the route on which the mobile object 10 exists, andprovides the mobile object 10 with the event information (e.g.,information of closure).

FIG. 5 shows management of a mobile object 10 by the mobile objectservers 220 and object server 230, according to an embodiment of thepresent invention. The mobile object server 220-1 may transfer themobile object agent to the mobile object server 220-2 assigned to aneighboring region in response to the mobile object 10 moving to theneighboring region. In this embodiment, in response to a mobile object10 traveling from region A to region B, the mobile object server 220-1managing region A deletes the mobile object agent MOA for the mobileobject 10, and a mobile object server 220-2 managing region B generatesa mobile object agent MOA for the mobile object 10.

In this embodiment, the object agent 230 may store information thatincludes a mobile object server identifier MOS-ID that identifies one ofthe plurality of mobile object servers 220 executing the mobile objectagent corresponding to the object agent 230. Just after the mobileobject 10 arrives at region B, the mobile object server 220-2 has notbeen executing the mobile object agent for the mobile object 10. Themobile object server 220-2 is operable to receive information from themobile object 10 in the region B assigned to the mobile object server220-2.

Using the information from the mobile object 10, the mobile objectserver 220-2 obtains the mobile object server identifier MOS-ID from theobject server 230 that manages the object agent for the mobile object 10because the mobile object server 220-2 is not executing the mobileobject agent for the mobile object 10. The mobile object server 220-2requests a mobile object server 220-1 identified by the mobile objectserver identifier MOS-ID to transfer the mobile object agent for themobile object 10. Then the mobile object server 220-1 managing region Atransfers the mobile object agent to the mobile object server 220-2assigned to a neighboring region B in response to the request.

FIG. 6 shows an operational flow of a system, according to an embodimentof the present invention. The present embodiment describes an example inwhich the system 100 performs the operations from S610 to S680 shown inFIG. 6 to manage mobile objects, such as mobile object 10, and events ona map area. FIG. 6 shows one example of the operational flow of thesystem 100 shown in FIGS. 1-5, but the system 100 shown in FIGS. 1-5 isnot limited to using this operational flows explained below. Also, theoperational flow in FIG. 6 may be performed by other systems.

First, an acquiring section, such as the acquiring section 110, mayacquire the map data of the geographic space to be managed by the system(S610). The acquiring section may acquire map data of a geographic spacethat includes one or more cities, one or more towns, and the like. Theacquiring section may include map data of a geographic space includingone or more states, countries, continents, etc. A dividing section, suchas the dividing section 130, may divide the map area to generate aplurality of regions.

Next, the system may perform an initialization process for the mobileobject (S620). The system may perform the process of S620 if a user(passenger) initializes a setting of a mobile object and any passengersof the mobile object, before starting to drive the mobile object.

After S620, a gateway apparatus, such as the gateway apparatus 160, ofthe system may acquire a car probe data from the mobile object (S630).Although the system may acquire the car probe data from the plurality ofthe mobile objects, the system acquiring a car probe data from onemobile object (which, may be referred to as “a target mobile object”) isexplained in the below description. The car probe data may includeinformation detected by the target mobile object, such as currentposition information of the target mobile object, a speed and/ordirection of the target mobile object, and event information observed bythe target mobile object (e.g., occurrence of ABS, detection ofobstacles, or the like). In one embodiment, the position information mayinclude an edge ID of an edge on which the target mobile object existsand the distance between the current location of the target mobileobject and the one end of the edge.

Next, the gateway apparatus may determine a region on which the targetmobile object is traveling based on the position information of the carprobe data of the target mobile object (S640). In one embodiment, thegateway apparatus may inquire a region manager, such as the regionmanager 140, about the region on which the mobile object exists. Adetermining section, such as the determining section 146, of the regionmanager may determine the region the target mobile object and providethe gateway apparatus with the information of the region of the targetmobile object. The gateway apparatus may provide an event server, suchas the event server 210, that manages the determined region and a mobileobject server, such as the mobile object server 220, that manages thedetermined region with the car probe data.

Next, the event server that is provided with the car probe data of thetarget mobile object may process events for the mobile objects (S650).The event server may manage event information based on the car probedata for notification of events to the target mobile object.

After S650, the mobile object server that is provided with the car probedata of the target mobile object may manage a mobile object agent forthe target mobile object (S660).

After S660, the system determines whether to end the process for thetarget mobile object. In one embodiment, the gateway apparatus maydetermine whether the car probe date indicates the engine stop of thetarget mobile object. If the system determines not to end the process,then the system proceeds with the process of S630 for the target mobileobject. If the system determines to end the process, then the systemends the process for the target mobile object, and may continue theprocess for other mobile objects.

As described above, the system manages mobile objects by utilizingmobile object agents realized by the plurality of the mobile objectservers. Since the system can transfer the mobile object agent betweenthe mobile object servers, it can efficiently manage the mobile objectstraveling around the plurality of regions. Furthermore, the systemcollects car probe data from the mobile objects and manages eventsgenerated from the car probe data by utilizing the event agents. Sinceeach event server divides a number of events occurring on its managingregions into a plurality of areas by utilizing the event agents, it canefficiently handle event information.

The process of S610 may be performed once before starting processesS620-S680. The process of S620-S680 may be performed for every mobileobject.

FIG. 7 shows an operational flow of an initialization process for amobile object, according to an embodiment of the present invention. Thepresent embodiment describes an example in which the system performs aninitialization process, such as the initialization process of S620 ofFIG. 6, through processes S621 to S623 shown in FIG. 7.

First, a gateway apparatus receives a setting data (including an ID ofthe mobile object, an ID(s) of passenger(s) and position information ofthe mobile object) from the mobile object (S621). The gateway apparatusdetermines one mobile object server that manages the mobile object basedon the position information of the mobile object. The gateway apparatusprovides the determined mobile object server with the setting data.Then, the determined mobile object server obtains information (e.g.,ID(s) of the passenger(s)) of at least one passenger of the mobileobject from the setting data of the mobile object.

Then, the mobile object server may request the object agent of theobject server for the mobile object to store the information of the atleast one passenger of the mobile object (S622). For example, eachmobile object may be mapped to each object agent of the object serversbased on values of the IDs of the mobile objects, and the mobile objectserver may identify one object agent corresponding to the ID of themobile object based on the calculation using the ID. Then, the mobileobject server may provide the object server managing the identifiedobject agent with the setting data including the position information,the ID of the mobile object, and ID(s) of passenger(s) of the mobileobject via the gateway apparatus.

Next, the object server stores the information of passenger(s) on anobject agent. In one embodiment, each of passengers may be preliminarilymapped to each of the passenger servers based on values of the IDs ofpassengers, and the passenger servers may have information ofpassengers. The object server may identify one passenger servercorresponding to the ID of a passenger based on the calculation usingthe ID. The object server may receive, via the gateway apparatus, theinformation of passengers from the passenger server corresponding to theID. Then, the object server may store or update the information of themobile object and the passengers of the mobile object, in the objectagent for the mobile object. The object server may include theinformation of a region that the mobile object currently exists, in theobject agent.

Next, the mobile object server 220 managing the region in which themobile object 10 exists generates a new mobile object agent for themobile object 10 (S623). In one embodiment, the mobile object server 220may copy the information of the object agent for the mobile object 10 tothe newly generated mobile object agent. For example, the mobile objectserver 220 may store the information of the mobile object 10 and theinformation of the at least one passenger of the mobile object 10 in thenewly generated mobile object agent for the mobile object 10.

FIG. 8 shows an operational flow of event processing, according to anembodiment of the present invention. The present embodiment describes anexample in which the system performs event processing, such as the eventprocessing of S650 of FIG. 6, through processes S651 to S659 shown inFIG. 8.

First, the event server may identify an event agent (S651). In oneembodiment, the event sever determines one event agent from theplurality of event agents based on the position information of thetarget mobile object. The determined event agent may be referred to as“target event agent.” For example, the event server determines a targetroute (or an edge of the map data) of the target mobile object based onthe position information and the map data, and selects, as a targetevent agent, an event agent that manages an area including the targetroute of the target mobile object indicated by the car probe data. Inanother embodiment, the car probe data of a target mobile object mayinclude the information of the target route of the target mobile object.

Next, the event server may edit event lists by the target event agentbased on the car probe data (S652). In one embodiment, the target eventagent may generate or update information of events (e.g., an edge thatan event occurs, an event ID, a location of an event, and content ofevent) of the target route on the event list based on information of thecar probe data. The event of the target route may be referred to as a“target event.”

Next, the event server may search, by the target event agent, aninfluence event on the target route on the area of the target eventagent based on the car probe data (S653). The influence event of thetarget route relates to an event on another route within a thresholddistance (e.g., a threshold travelling distance of the target route, athreshold number of edges away from the target route, and/or a thresholdtravelling time from the target route).

In one embodiment, the target event agent itself may search routes (oredge IDs) apart from the target route within the threshold distancebased on the topology information of routes in the regions, or mayrequest other entities (e.g., a server) to search for routes (or edgeIDs).

Next, the event server may determine whether the event list of thetarget event agent includes event entries corresponding to all influenceevents of the target route searched at S653 (S654). In one embodiment,the target event agent determines whether edges of the influence eventsare listed as edge IDs of events in the event list.

If an area managed by a target event agent includes the routes (edges)of all influence events relating to an event, then an event list of thetarget event agent includes corresponding event entries of all influenceevents. However, if the routes (edges) of any influence events aremanaged by other event agents, then the event list may not includecorresponding event entries of all influence events. If the decision ispositive, then the event server proceeds with the process S655 and ifnegative, the event server proceeds with the process S656.

At S655, the event server may edit a notification event ID list by thetarget event agent. The notification event ID list includes IDs ofinfluence events and edge IDs of the influence events that aredetermined to be not included in the event list of the target eventagent at S654. In other words, the notification event ID list is a listof event IDs of influence events that are not managed by the targetevent agent. Then, the event server may proceed with the process ofS656.

At S656, the event server may edit a notification event list for thetarget mobile object, by the target event agent. The notification eventlist is a list of events that may be helpful to the target mobile objecttraveling on the target route. The notification event list may includetarget events and influence events of the target events. The targetevent agent may add entries of the target events and the influenceevents in its managing event list for notification.

Next, the event server determines, by the target event agent, whetherthe notification event ID list has at least one entry. If the decisionis positive, then the event server proceeds with the process of S658,and if negative, then the event server ends the process of S650

At S658, the event server may identify, by the target event agent, anevent agent that manages an event list including events in thenotification event ID list. The determined event agent may be referredto as “remote event agent.”

Next, the event server may acquire information of events in thenotification event ID list (S659), and end the process S650. In oneembodiment, the target event agent may receive information of events inthe notification event ID list from the remote event agent, and edit thenotification event list based on the acquired information. In anotherembodiment, the target event agent may add entries of the influenceevents in the notification event ID list based on the acquiredinformation.

FIG. 9 shows an illustrative example of an event list, according to anembodiment of the present invention. As described in FIG. 9, the eventlist may include edge IDs of events, event IDs of events, locations ofevents, specific contents of events, and influence events relating toevents. In this embodiment, each route is represented as “edge.” Forexample, this event list indicates that an event (identified as “Eve0214”) has occurred along the full length of edge 0001 on the area, thatthe event has limited the speed to 30 km/h, and that edge 0001 includesan influence event identified as “Eve 0114.” The event list alsoindicates that an event (identified as “Eve 0114” on edge 0002) hasoccurred 32 m from the 1st node on edge 0002 on the area, that the eventis a closure of a route, and that edge 0001 includes influence eventsidentified as “Eve 0214” on edge 0001, “Eve 0421” on edge 0003, etc. Inone embodiment, the target event agent may add a new entry correspondingto an event detected by the car probe data, in the event list.

According to the first entry in the event list of FIG. 9, the edge 0001has influence event Eve 0114. This may mean that a mobile objecttraveling on the edge 0001 is influenced by the event Eve 0114 that hasoccurred apart from edge 0001 within a threshold distance. In responseto receiving the car probe data including the position informationindicating that the target mobile object is traveling on the edge 0001,the target event agent searches and obtains routes (edge IDs) apart fromthe target route (edge 0001) within the threshold distance, and thenfinds neighboring edge 0002 as a result. In response to receiving thecar probe data including the position information of the edge 0001, thetarget event agent determines whether the edge of influence event (edge0002) corresponding to the target route is listed as edge IDs in theevent list.

The target event agent assigned to the area may generate or update acandidate event based on information from the target mobile object. Inone embodiment, the target event agent may generate or update candidateevents on the candidate event list including information of a pluralityof edges on the area of the event agent based on information of the carprobe data.

Although the event list of FIG. 9 includes information of influenceevents, the information of the influence events may be managed byanother list. In one embodiment, the event agent may manage both a firstevent list containing information of an event on the target route and asecond event list containing information of the influence event.

FIG. 10 shows an illustrative example of a candidate event list,according to an embodiment of the present invention. As described inFIG. 10, the event list may include edge IDs of candidate events, countsof detecting candidate events, locations of candidate events, andspecific contents of candidate events for each candidate event. Forexample, this candidate event list indicates that evidence of an event(congestion) has been observed twice along the full length of edge 0009on the area, and that evidence of an event (skid) has been observed onceat a point 15 m from the 2nd node on edge 0013 on the area.

The target event agent may determine whether to change a candidate eventin the candidate event list to an event in the event list. In oneembodiment, the target event agent may upgrade the candidate event tothe event based on information from other mobile objects. In this case,the target event agent counts occurrences of a candidate event observedby a plurality of mobile objects (including the target mobile object andother mobile objects). If the count of a candidate event exceeds athreshold value, then the target event agent determines that thecandidate event is upgraded to an event. In one embodiment, in responseto the upgrade, the target event agent deletes the entry of thecandidate event from the candidate event list, and generates a new entryof an event corresponding to the deleted candidate event. The eventservers may set the same or different criteria for upgrading candidateevents among the plurality of event agents.

FIG. 11 shows an illustrative example of a notification event list,according to an embodiment of the present invention. As described inFIG. 11, the notification event list may include edge IDs oftarget/influence events, event IDs of target/influence events, locationsof target/influence events, and specific contents of target/influenceevents. For example, this notification event list indicates that anevent (speed limit) has occurred along the full length of edge 0001 onthe area, and that an event (closure) has occurred at a point 32 m fromthe 1st node on edge 0002 on the area.

FIG. 12 shows a mobile object and events, according to an embodiment ofthe present invention. In the embodiment of FIG. 12, the target mobileobject 10 is traveling eastbound on the edge 0001, which is the targetroute. The target event agent EA1 manages an area including the edge0001, the edge 0002, the edge 0101, and the edge 0102, and theneighboring event agent EA2 manages an area including the edge 0003, theedge 0103, and the edge 0104.

Direction dependent edges are described in FIG. 12. However, edges maynot be direction dependent according other embodiments, and in suchembodiments, the event agent may manage events, candidate events, andinfluence events with direction information. The target event agent EA1manages an event (Eve 0214) on the edge 0001 as the target event in theevent list. Since the edge 0002 is apart from the edge 0001 within thethreshold distance, the target event agent EA1 also manages an event(Eve 0114) on the edge 0002 as an influence event in the event list. Thetarget event agent EA1 manages a notification event list including thetarget event (Eve0214) and the influence event (Eve 0114) for the targetmobile object 10.

In the embodiment of FIG. 12, the mobile object agent managing targetmobile object requests the event agent EA1 that manages the target event(e.g., Eve 0214) and the influence event (e.g., Eve 0114) to send thenotification event list including the target event and the influenceevent. In another embodiment, the mobile object agent may request theremote event agent EA2 that manages the information of influenceevent(s) (e.g., Eve0421) to send a notification event list containinginformation of the influence event(s) if the influence event is locatedoutside of the area including the target route (Edge 0001).

FIG. 13 shows an operational flow of mobile object processing, accordingto an embodiment of the present invention. The present embodimentdescribes an example in which the system manages the target mobileobject, such as in S660 of FIG. 6, through processes S661 to S669 shownin FIG. 13.

At S661, the mobile object server may determine whether the mobileobject agent for the target mobile object exists in the regiondetermined to be the region of the mobile object, such as the regiondetermined at S640. In other words, the mobile object server determineswhether the mobile object server manages the mobile object agent of thetarget mobile object. If the decision is positive, then the mobileobject server proceeds with the process S667, and if negative, themobile object server proceeds with the process S662.

At S662, the mobile object server may identify an object server thatincludes the object agent containing the information of the targetmobile object. In one embodiment, the mobile object server may identifythe object server in the same manner described in S622.

Next, at S663, the mobile object server may inquire the object server230 identified at S662 for the location of the mobile object agent ofthe target mobile object. The object server may refer to the objectagent of the target mobile object, obtain information of the mobileobject server that currently manages the mobile object agent MOA of thetarget mobile object, if it exists, and provide the mobile object serverwith the information.

Next, the mobile object server may determine whether the mobile objectagent for the target mobile object exists in any other regions. In otherwords, the mobile object server may determine which mobile object servermanages the mobile object agent for the target mobile object from theplurality of mobile object servers managing other regions, at S663. Ifthe decision is positive, then the mobile object server proceeds withthe process S666, and if negative the mobile object server proceeds withthe process S665.

At S665, the mobile object server generates a new mobile object agentMOA for the target mobile object. The mobile object server may generatethe mobile object agent MOA for the target mobile object by obtaininginformation of the target mobile object from the object server thatincludes the object agent containing the information of the targetmobile object. In one embodiment, the mobile object server may generatethe new mobile object agent in the same manner described in S623. Themobile object server may also communicate with the object server via thegateway apparatus, and register the current region of the target mobileobject in the object agent corresponding to the target mobile object. Bygenerating the new mobile object agent, the system can handle a newmobile object 10 that has been not managed by the mobile object server.

At S666, the mobile object server may transfer the mobile object agentfrom the other mobile object server determined to manage the mobileobject agent for the target mobile object at S664. In one embodiment,the mobile object server may receive information of the mobile objectagent for the target mobile object from the other mobile object server,and generate a new mobile object agent including the receivedinformation. The mobile object server may also communicate with theobject server via the gateway apparatus, and register the current regionof the target mobile object in the object agent of the target mobileobject.

Next, at S667, the mobile object server may receive a notification eventlist for the target mobile object. In one embodiment, the mobile objectserver first determines the target route where the target mobile objectis located. Then, the mobile object server may request the event agentthat manages the information of target event(s) and influence event(s)corresponding to the target route to send a notification event listcontaining information of the target event(s) and influence event(s) ofthe target route.

At S668, the mobile object server may update the current location of thetarget mobile object by the mobile object agent. In one embodiment, themobile object agent for the target mobile object updates the currentlocation of the target mobile object based on the position informationof the car probe data.

At S669, the mobile object server may execute the mobile object agentfor the target mobile object to provide the target mobile object withinformation that assists the target mobile object with traveling in thegeographic space based on the information included in the event list. Inone embodiment, the mobile object agent may provide the target mobileobject with information of events on the notification event list.

In one embodiment, the at least one mobile object server may execute themobile object agent for the target mobile object to provide the targetmobile object with information that assists the target mobile objectwith traveling in the geographic space based on the information of theat least one passenger of the target mobile object. For example, themobile object agent may provide the target mobile object with an alert,a notice, and/or an action list relating events on the notificationevent list depending on a number of passengers (e.g., for guiding a carpool lane), the age, gender, license, real time information (e.g.,driving history or sleep history), and characteristics of thepassengers.

The action list is a list of actions recommended to passengers inresponse to the events (e.g., braking, accelerating, and/or steering ofthe target mobile object).

The action list may include commands to the target mobile object forautomatic driving and/or driving assist. In one embodiment, the mobileobject agent may include information that the passenger is sensitive torough driving, and then the mobile object agent may provide commands togently drive the target mobile object. In one embodiment, the mobileobject agent may include information of driving skill of a driverpassenger, and then provide different commands depending on the skill ofthe driver. The mobile object server may provide the target mobileobject with the information via the gateway apparatus.

As described above, the mobile object server receives information fromthe target mobile object in the region assigned to the mobile objectserver, and generates the mobile object agent for the target mobileobject if there is no mobile object server among the plurality of mobileobject servers that is executing the mobile object agent.

FIG. 14 shows an exemplary configuration of the system 100, according toan embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, eachsubsystem 200 includes an event server 210, mobile object server 220, anobject server 230, and a passenger server 240. However, otherembodiments are also possible, in which each subsystem 200 comprises anycombination of singles or multiples of each server. In otherembodiments, the system 100 may manage allocation of object agents ofthe object server 230 and passenger agents of the passenger server 240in the subsystem 200. For example, the gateway apparatus 160 may changeallocation of the object/passenger agents to the subsystems 200 torectify the imbalance of data processing loads among the subsystems 200.

In the embodiment described above, the event server 210 may manageallocated event agents. In other embodiments, the system 100 may manageallocation of event agents to the event servers 210. For example, thegateway apparatus 160 may change allocation of event agents to the eventservers 210 to rectify the imbalance of loads of processing events amongthe event servers 210. In the embodiment described above, the eventserver 210 causes each event agent to manage allocated divided areaderived from a region. In other embodiment, the event server 210 causesat least one event agent to manage specific information regarding events(e.g., cross section of roads or other specific function(s) of a map,or, hurricane or other disaster/accident).

As described above, the system 100 according to the present embodimentmay be operable to assist with the movement of a plurality of mobileobjects in a geographic space. Here, there are cases where theinformation received by the receiving section 150 includes not onlyinformation concerning the mobile objects 10 actually traveling on theroad, but also information concerning virtual mobile objects indicatingthe presence of mobile objects 10. The hardware and software installedin the mobile objects 10 are often primitive, and there is also hardwareand software with specifications that are made public according tocertain standards. Accordingly, by altering or modifying such hardwareand software, there are cases where it is possible to configure aspoofed mobile device, simulation, or the like that transmits andreceives data from travelling automobiles.

Even if the system 100 has functions such as user identification andregistration of automobile information, there are cases where suchspoofed information is identified as information of an automobile thatis actually travelling. In such a case, the system 100 performs theassistance and traffic control while referencing this “spoofed”information and “virtual mobile object” information, and therefore thereare cases where the instructions that are output do not match the actualtraffic conditions. Furthermore, when there is a large amount of thisspoofed information or the like, the number of calculation processesincreases and the system 100 becomes unable to efficiently performprocessing. Yet further, the driving record, traffic condition record,and the like that are compiled by the system 100 are modified andaltered, thereby reducing the stability and reliability of the system.

Therefore, the system 100 according to the present embodiment may beoperable to easily detect such spoofed information and virtual mobileobject information, to prevent a reduction in the stability andreliability of the system 100. The following describes such a system100.

FIG. 15 shows a third exemplary configuration of the system 100according to the present embodiment. In the system 100 according to thepresent embodiment, components that have substantially the sameoperation as components in the system 100 according to the embodimentshown in FIG. 3 and FIG. 14 are given the same reference numerals anddescriptions thereof are omitted. In the present embodiment, a mobileobject that is a target of a judgment by the system 100 concerningwhether the mobile object is spoofed, among a plurality of mobileobjects 10, is set as a first mobile object 12. The first mobile object12 that is the target of this judgment is not limited to one mobileobject, and there can be a plurality of judgment targets.

The first mobile object 12 may be a mobile object that is newlyregistered in the system 100. Furthermore, the first mobile object 12may be a mobile object that has caused a traffic violation or the likeat least a reference number of times while travelling. The first mobileobject 12 may be a mobile object that has received notification of anabnormality or the like from another mobile object 10. The first mobileobject 12 may be a mobile object for which the communication with thesystem 100 has become temporarily or consistently unstable. The firstmobile object 12 may be a mobile object that has been judged by thesystem 100 in the past to have a high probability of being spoofed. Thefirst mobile object 12 may be a mobile object selected randomly by thesystem 100 from among a plurality of mobile objects 10. The first mobileobject 12 may be a mobile object that the system 100 extractsperiodically from among a plurality of mobile objects 10.

The subsystems 200 according to the present embodiment judges whetherthe first mobile object 12 is spoofed, while managing a plurality ofmobile objects 10 in a geographic space to be managed. In the presentembodiment, the mobile object server 220 of each subsystem 200 furtherincludes an acquiring section 310, an estimating section 320, a storagesection 330, a judging section 340, and an information processingsection 350.

The acquiring section 310 may be operable to acquire informationrelating to the first mobile object 12. The acquiring section 310 may beoperable to acquire information received by the system 100 from thefirst mobile object 12. The acquiring section 310 acquires first sensorinformation detected by a sensor of the first mobile object 12, forexample. The first sensor information may include position informationof this first mobile object 12 detected by the first mobile object 12.In the present embodiment, an example is described in which the firstsensor information is a GPS signal received by the first mobile object12 from a GPS satellite. Specifically, if the first mobile object 12 isspoofed, the first mobile object 12 generates a GPS signal that is aplausible fake, and transmits this GPS signal to the system 100.

The acquiring section 310 may acquire information relating to the firstmobile object 12 stored in the storage section 330. For example, theacquiring section 310 may acquire information of a sensor or the likemounted in the first mobile object 12, information concerning theposition where the first mobile object 12 is moving, and the like. Theacquiring section 310 may acquire error information of the sensormounted in the first mobile object 12. For example, the acquiringsection 310 acquires an error range in the specifications of the sensoras a reference error range. The acquiring section 310 may acquire theerror range of an estimated position based on the signal from thesensor, as a normal error range. In this case, the acquiring section 310may be operable to acquire the normal error range associated with theposition of the first mobile object 12.

Here, the normal error range may be an error range based on the firstsensor information of the first mobile object 12. Instead of or inaddition to this, the normal error range may include error informationbased on sensor information acquired from another mobile object 10 thathas the same sensor or the same type of sensor as the first mobileobject 12. If this other mobile object 10 has travelled at substantiallythe same position as the first mobile object 12 in the past, the normalerror range may include error information based on the sensorinformation acquired from this other mobile object 10. The normal errorrange may be a range of a distribution of error information accumulatedin the storage section 330.

The estimating section 320 may be operable to match the positioninformation of the first mobile object 12 with geographic data, andestimate an estimated position of the first mobile object 12. Theestimating section 320 may estimate the position of the first mobileobject 12 by matching this position with the geographic data managed bythe subsystem 200, based on the first sensor information of the firstmobile object 12. Specifically, the estimating section 320 may set theposition in the geographic data corresponding to the GPS informationtransmitted to the system 100 by the first mobile object 12 as theestimated position of the first mobile object 12.

The storage section 330 may be operable to store the informationacquired by the acquiring section 310. For example, the storage section330 may store the first sensor information of the first mobile object12. The storage section 330 may store the geographic data managed by thesubsystem 200. The storage section 330 may store information concerningthe detection errors of various sensors for each position in thegeographic data. In this case, the storage section 330 may accumulatethe information concerning the detection errors of the various sensorsand store a distribution of the detection error for every position.

The storage section 330 may store the normal error range of the sensorfor every position, based on the detection error distribution. As anexample, the storage section 330 may store a standard deviation such as□ or 2□ of the detection error distribution, as the normal error range.Specifically, the storage section 330 may be operable to store, ascontext data, the normal error range of the sensor for every position inthe geographic space managed by the subsystem 200. In this case, thestorage section 330 may function as a database for the context data. Thestorage section 330 preferably stores the context data for each type ofsensor.

The storage section 330 may store each of intermediate data, calculationresults, parameters, and the like that are generated by or used in theprocess of managing the plurality of mobile objects 10 performed by thesubsystem 200. The storage section 330 may, in response to a requestfrom each component in the system 100, supply the source of the requestwith stored data. The storage section 330 may, in response to a requestfrom the acquiring section 310, supply the acquiring section 310 withstored information concerning the normal error range.

The judging section 340 may be operable to judge whether the firstmobile object 12 is a real mobile object, based on the first sensorinformation detected by the sensor of the first mobile object 12 amongthe plurality of mobile objects 10. The judging section 340 may beoperable to calculate the estimation error of the first sensorinformation from a position corresponding to the position information ofthe first mobile object 12 and the estimated position of the firstmobile object 12. The judging section 340 may judge whether the firstmobile object 12 is a real mobile object based on the estimation errorof the first sensor information.

The judging section 340 may perform the judgment of the first mobileobject 12 using the estimation error of the first sensor information,the reference error range, and the normal error range. For example, thejudging section 340 may judge that there is a high probability of thefirst mobile object 12 not being a real mobile object, on a conditionthat the estimation error of the first sensor information is outside ofthe reference error range. Furthermore, the judging section 340 mayjudge that the first mobile object 12 is not a real mobile object on acondition that the estimation error of the first sensor information isoutside the normal error range, for example.

The information processing section 350 may be operable to performinformation processing for each of the plurality of mobile objects 10.The information processing section 350 may perform the informationprocessing on a second mobile object among the plurality of mobileobjects 10 excluding the first mobile object 12, in response to thefirst mobile object 12 being judged as not being a real mobile object.The information processing section 350 may be operable to performinformation processing relating to mobile object agents correspondingrespectively to the plurality of mobile objects 10.

The information processing section 350 may be operable to assist theplurality of mobile objects 10. The information processing section 350may assist with the movement of the plurality of mobile objects 10excluding the first mobile object 12, while ignoring the presence of thefirst mobile object 12 that has been judged to be spoofed from thisplurality of mobile objects 10. In other words, the informationprocessing section 350 does not need to provide notifications and/orinstructions corresponding to the information of the first mobile object12 to the plurality of mobile objects 10 excluding the first mobileobject 12.

The system 100 according to the present embodiment described above maybe operable to assist the plurality of mobile objects 10 while judgingwhether the first mobile object 12 is a real mobile object. Furthermore,the system 100 may continue assisting the plurality of mobile objects 10while accumulating the first sensor information and/or information basedon the first sensor information serving as evidence for the judgment.The following describes the management operation of such a system 100.

FIG. 16 shows an exemplary configuration of a portion of the operationalflow of the system 100 according to the present embodiment. The mobileobject server 220 according to the present embodiment assists with themovement of a plurality of mobile objects 10 in a geographic space byperforming the operational flow shown in FIG. 16. In other words, theoperational flow shown in FIG. 16 may be performed by the mobile objectserver 220 in addition to or instead of the mobile object serverprocessing (S660) described in FIG. 6 and FIG. 13.

First, at S702, the system 100 may communicate with the plurality ofmobile objects 10 moving within the geographic space. For example, theacquiring section 310 may acquire one or more pieces of sensorinformation from among the pieces of sensor information detected by thesensor mounted in each of the plurality of mobile objects 10. Theacquiring section 310 may acquire the first sensor information of thefirst mobile object 12 for which the judgment concerning whether thefirst mobile object 12 is a real mobile object is to be made. Theacquiring section 310 may store the acquired first sensor information inthe storage section 330.

Next, at S704, the acquiring section 310 may acquire informationconcerning the first mobile object 12 that is an analysis target. Theacquiring section 310 may acquire information concerning the type andmodel of the first mobile object 12, the type and model of the mountedsensors, and the like. The acquiring section 310 may acquire informationconcerning the specifications or the like of the sensors mounted in thefirst mobile object 12. For example, the acquiring section 310 mayacquire the model or the like of the GPS receiver mounted in the firstmobile object 12 and acquire information concerning the specificationsor the like of this GPS receiver.

Here, the information concerning the specifications or the like of thesensors may be registered in advance in the system 100. The acquiringsection 310 may acquire information concerning the specifications or thelike from a manufacturer or the like of the sensor, via the network. Asan example, the acquiring section 310 acquires information concerningthe allowable error of the GPS receiver mounted in the first mobileobject 12, as the reference error range. If the storage section 330stores information concerning the reference error range of sensors thatare substantially the same or the same type acquired throughcommunication with a plurality of mobile objects 10 in the past, theacquiring section 310 may acquire the information concerning thereference error range of these sensors accumulated by the storagesection 330.

Here, if the acquiring section 310 cannot acquire the informationconcerning the reference error range, the acquiring section 310 may setpredetermined threshold values as the reference error range. Thepredetermined threshold values may be an error range considered to becommon sense for a GPS sensor, for example. Alternatively, thepredetermined threshold values may be an average value or a maximumrange of the normal error range for every position accumulated in thesystem 100. Instead, if the acquiring section 310 cannot acquire theinformation concerning the reference error range, the system 100 mayskip the operations from S706 to S710.

Next, in S706, the estimating section 320 and the judging section 340estimate the error of the first sensor information of the first mobileobject 12. The estimating section 320 may estimate the position of thefirst mobile object 12 in the geographic data, by performing mapmatching using the first sensor information and the geographic datamanaged by the subsystem 200. The judging section 340 may calculate thedifference between the position in the geographic data measured by theestimating section 320 and the position information of the raw data ofthe first sensor information, as the estimation error.

Next, in S708, the judging section 340 compares the calculatedestimation error and the reference error range. If the calculatedestimation error is outside the reference error range (S708: No), thejudging section 340 may judge that there is a high probability of thefirst mobile object 12 being spoofed. In this case, at S710, the judgingsection 340 may increase the probability value p from an initial value.The judging section 340 may add a predetermined value to the initialvalue of the probability value p. Furthermore, the judging section 340may add a weighted value, which is weighted according to the amount bywhich the estimation error falls outside the reference error range, tothe initial value of the probability value p.

If the calculated estimation error is within the reference error range(S708: Yes), the judging section 340 may keep the probability value p atthe initial value. In this way, the judging section 340 may first judgewhether the error based on the first sensor information of the firstmobile object 12 is within the reference range. In this way, if thefirst mobile object 12 transmits information that contradicts thespecification of the sensor as the first sensor information, the judgingsection 340 can increase the probability of this first mobile object 12being spoofed.

Next, the system 100 may perform loop processing from S712 to S722,while the first mobile object 12 is moving. Specifically, this loopprocessing may be performed at every point in the movement, if thepieces of first sensor information acquired in time series from thefirst mobile object 12 indicate that the first mobile object 12 ismoving. Here, each point may be set according to a plurality ofpredetermined points in the geographic data managed by the subsystem200. These points may be set at every interval of a predetermineddistance, or may be set every time a predetermined time has passed.

For example, in S714, the acquiring section 310 may acquire from thestorage section 330 the information concerning the normal error rangecorresponding to a first point in a route on which the first mobileobject 12 moves. Here, the first point may be a position correspondingto the first piece of first sensor information received from the firstmobile object 12 after the first mobile object 12 begins moving. Theacquiring section 310 may acquire the normal error range accumulated bythe system 100 as context information at a position corresponding to thefirst point.

Next, in S716, the estimating section 320 and the judging section 340may estimate the error of the first sensor information transmitted atthe first point by the first mobile object 12. The estimating section320 and the judging section 340 may calculate the error in the samemanner as the procedure used to calculate the error in S706.Specifically, the estimating section 320 may estimate the position ofthe first mobile object 12 in the geographic data by performing mapmatching using the first sensor information and the geographic datamanaged by the subsystem 200. The judging section 340 may calculate thedifference between the position in the geographic data estimated by theestimating section 320 and the position information of the raw data ofthe first sensor information, as the estimation error.

Next, in S718, the judging section 340 compares the calculatedestimation error to the normal error range. If the calculated estimationerror is outside the normal error range (S718: No), the judging section340 may judge that there is a high probability of the first mobileobject 12 being spoofed. In this case, at S720, the judging section 340may increase the probability value p. The judging section 340 may add apredetermined value to the probability value p. Furthermore, the judgingsection 340 may add a weighted value, which is weighted according to theamount by which the estimation error falls outside the normal errorrange, to the probability value p.

If the calculated estimation error is within the normal error range(S718: Yes), the judging section 340 may keep the probability value p atthe current value. Upon making the judgment for the first point, thesystem 100 may return to S714 and perform the judgment for a secondpoint, which is the next point after the first point. The system 100 maysequentially perform judgments for a plurality of points in the movementroute of the first mobile object 12. In this way, the judging section340 may judge whether the error based on the first sensor information ofthe first mobile object 12 is within the normal range, for every pointin the movement route of the first mobile object 12.

If judgments for a predetermined number of points have been finished,the system 100 may end the loop processing. Furthermore, the system 100may end the loop processing if a predetermined time has passed. Yetfurther, the system 100 may end the loop processing if the probabilityvalue p exceeds a predetermined value.

When the loop processing ends, in S724, the judging section 340 mayjudge whether the first mobile object 12 is spoofed, according to theprobability value p. In response to the probability value p beinggreater than or equal to a predetermined reference value (S724: Yes),for example, in S726 the judging section 340 may judge that the firstsensor signal from the first mobile object 12 is a spoofed signal. Inresponse to the probability value p being less than the predeterminedreference value (S724: No), for example, in S728 the judging section 340may judge that the first sensor signal from the first mobile object 12is not a spoofed signal.

Here, each sensor mounted in the plurality of mobile objects 10preferably operates within a predetermined error range. Furthermore,each sensor preferably operates in a substantially constant error range,regardless of the position of the mobile object 10 in which the sensoris mounted. However, the surrounding environment of a mobile object 10can fluctuate according to the position. For example, if the mobileobject 10 is travelling through an area with skyscrapers, there arecases where the number of signals that can be received from among thesignals transmitted from a plurality of GPS satellites fluctuatesaccording to the position where the mobile object 10 is travelling.There are also cases where the temperature, humidity, air pressure, andthe like fluctuate according to the season, weather, time, and the likeat the position where the mobile object 10 is travelling. There arecases where such fluctuation in the surrounding environmentcorresponding to the position of the mobile object 10 causes afluctuation in the detection errors of the sensors.

Specifically, as a result of one mobile object 10 travelling on a road,there are cases where the error of a sensor mounted in this one mobileobject 10 fluctuates according to the position of this one mobile object10. There are also cases where such error fluctuation of the sensorcorresponding to the position has a peculiar trend for every type ofcar, every type of sensor, or every model of sensor. Therefore, thesystem 100 stores the error information corresponding to the position ofthe sensor based on each piece of sensor information of the plurality ofmobile objects 10 in the storage section 330 for every type of car,every type of sensor, or every model of sensor. When the errorinformation of the storage section 330 is accumulated for everyposition, an error distribution for every position is obtained, andtherefore the storage section 330 can store the range of thisdistribution in advance as the normal error range.

In this way, the system 100 can judge whether the first mobile object 12is an automobile that is actually travelling, according to whether theerror information based on the first sensor information of the firstmobile object 12 is within the normal error range. The normal errorrange may be an error range obtained by accumulating the errorinformation of other mobile objects 10. Furthermore, the normal errorrange is preferably an error range obtained by accumulating the errorinformation of other mobile objects 10 that are the same type. Thenormal error range is preferably an error range obtained by accumulatingthe error information of other mobile objects 10 that have the same typeor same model of sensor mounted therein. The normal error range is morepreferably an error range obtained by accumulating the error informationacquired when the first mobile object 12 was positioned at substantiallythe same point as in the past.

In the manner described above, by storing the error information of aplurality of mobile objects 10, the system 100 according to the presentembodiment can judge whether the first mobile object 12 is a real mobileobject, based on the first sensor information received from this firstmobile object 12. Here, the system 100 may perform the accumulation ofthe error information along with the judgment concerning the firstmobile object 12. Specifically, when calculating the estimation error,the judging section 340 may store this estimation error in the storagesection 330. The judging section 340 may also calculate the error ofanother mobile object 10 and, in this case, may store the calculatederror in the storage section 330.

Specifically, the judging section 340 may be operable to store thenormal error range for every position in the geographic space in thecontext database, based on the estimation error of the positioninformation detected by at least one mobile object 10 in response to theat least one mobile object among the plurality of mobile objects 10having moved in the geographic space. The judging section 340 may beoperable to store the normal error range of every position in thegeographic space independently for each of at least one of the type andmodel of at least one mobile object and the condition of this position.

The above describes an example in which the system 100 according to thepresent embodiment judges whether a first mobile object 12 is a realmobile object according to the error information based on the firstsensor information of the first mobile object 12, the normal errorrange, and the reference error range, but the present invention is notlimited to this. For example, if the error based on the first sensorinformation of the first mobile object 12 is substantially the samevalue in the movement route, the judging section 340 may judge that thefirst mobile object 12 is not a real mobile object.

Furthermore, even if the error based on the first sensor information ofthe first mobile object 12 does change according to the position, it isnot always the case that the first mobile object 12 is a real mobileobject. For example, if at least three digits of a significant figuresubstantially match with a past error of the first mobile object 12 at aplurality of points in the same route, the judging section 340 may judgethat the first mobile object 12 is not a real mobile object.

In addition to or instead of the estimation error judgment, the judgingsection 340 may judge whether the first mobile object 12 is a realmobile object according to the estimated position of a second mobileobject. For example, the judging section 340 may be operable to judgethat the first mobile object 12 is not a real mobile object in responseto the position of the first mobile object 12 overlapping at the sametime with a position of the second mobile object among the plurality ofmobile objects 10.

Here, the second mobile object may be a mobile object that is differentfrom the first mobile object 12 among the plurality of mobile objects10, and moves nearby when the first mobile object 12 is moving or isstopped. The second mobile object is not limited to being a singlemobile object, and there may be a plurality of second mobile objects ifthere are a plurality of mobile objects near the first mobile object 12such that the distance between vehicles is from several meters to tensof meters. By comparing the position of the first mobile object 12 tothe position of each mobile object near the first mobile object 12 ateach timing, the judging section 340 can judge whether there is acontradiction with the first sensor information of the first mobileobject 12.

Furthermore, the judging section 340 may judge whether the first mobileobject 12 is a real mobile object based on the result of a comparisonbetween the behavior of the first mobile object 12 and the behavior ofthe second mobile object positioned within a predetermined distance fromthe first mobile object 12 in the same route as the first mobile object12, from among the plurality of mobile objects 10. For example, if thefirst mobile object 12 continues travelling at substantially the samespeed at substantially the same time on substantially the same routedespite the second mobile object decelerating, stopping, changing lanes,or the like due to waiting for a traffic light, being at the scene of anaccident, waiting at a pedestrian crosswalk, or the like, the judgingsection 340 may judge that the first mobile object 12 is not a realmobile object.

Here, the system 100 according to the present embodiment can further useinformation of a sensor or the like provided in the second mobile objector on the road. Accordingly, based on the position information of thefirst mobile object 12, the system 100 may acquire information of othersensors operable to acquire this position information and judge whetherthe first mobile object 12 is a real mobile object. Specifically, thejudging section 340 may be operable to judge that the first mobileobject 12 is a real mobile object in response to the first mobile object12 being detected at a position corresponding to the positioninformation of the first mobile object 12 according to a sensor providedin the geographic space or in the second mobile object among theplurality of mobile objects.

The above is a description of an example in which the system 100according to the present embodiment judges whether the first mobileobject 12 is a real mobile object by comparing the probability value pto a reference value. Instead of this, the system 100 may classify thefirst mobile object 12 according to a plurality of threshold values. Forexample, the judging section 340 may judge that the first mobile object12 is a real mobile object if the probability value p is less than afirst threshold value. Furthermore, the judging section 340 may judgethat there is a possibility that the first mobile object 12 is not areal mobile object if the probability value p is greater than or equalto the first reference value and less than a second reference value. Yetfurther, the judging section 340 may judge that the first mobile object12 is not a real mobile object if the probability value p is greaterthan or equal to the second threshold value.

In this way, the judging section 340 may be operable to judge that thereis a possibility that the first mobile object 12 is not a real mobileobject. In this case, the system 100 may be operable to perform a moredetailed investigation of the first mobile object 12. The followingdescribes such a system.

FIG. 17 shows a fourth exemplary configuration of the system 100according to the present embodiment. In the system 100 according to thepresent embodiment, components that have substantially the sameoperation as components in the system 100 according to the embodimentshown in FIG. 15 are given the same reference numerals and descriptionsthereof are omitted. In the system 100 having the fourth exemplaryconfiguration, the mobile object server 220 further includes arequesting section 360.

The requesting section 360 may be operable to request that the secondmobile object 14 among the plurality of mobile objects 10 checks whetherthere is a first mobile object 12 at a position corresponding to theposition information of this first mobile object 12. Furthermore, therequesting section 360 may be operable to request that a sensor or thelike provided on the road checks whether the first mobile object 12 ispresent. The requesting section 360 may make the requests for checkingto the second mobile object 14 and/or the sensor or the like on the roadin response to the judging section 340 judging that there is apossibility that the first mobile object 12 is not a real mobile object.

The second mobile object 14 and/or the sensor or the like on the roadmay be operable to detect the position of the first mobile object 12based on the first sensor information of the first mobile object 12. Forexample, the second mobile object 14 and/or the sensor or the like onthe road may detect a corresponding mobile object by using avehicle-mounted camera, an infrared sensor, a microwave sensor, or thelike. If it is impossible to clearly judge whether the first mobileobject 12 is real, the system 100 having the fourth exemplaryconfiguration performs a check using a more specific detection means,and can therefore make an accurate judgment.

The detection means used by the second mobile object 14 or the like candirectly detect a mobile object using a camera or the like, andtherefore the detection accuracy is high but time, effort, and cost areincurred. Accordingly, by performing the detection with the secondmobile object 14 or the like only for a first mobile object 12 that hasbeen judged to possibly not be a real mobile object, for example, suchas in the system 100 having the fourth exemplary configuration, it ispossible to reduce the time, effort, and cost.

The above describes an example in which the system 100 according to thepresent embodiment can easily judge whether the first mobile object 12is spoofed or a virtual mobile object. The system 100 may sequentiallyperform this judgment on mobile objects for which the judgmentconcerning realness has not been made, from among the plurality ofmobile objects 10. Furthermore, the system 100 may be operable toperform registration by attaching a label of a virtual mobile object tospoofed information that is not real, and track the behavior of thisvirtual mobile object.

In this case, the judging section 340 may be operable to identifywhether the first mobile object 12 is registered in advance as a virtualmobile object, before making the judgment for this first mobile object12. If the first mobile object 12 is a registered virtual mobile object,the judging section 340 may skip the judgment for this first mobileobject 12. The information processing section 350 may then store thebehavior of this virtual mobile object in the storage section 330 byadding this behavior to the past behavior. If a request is made toprovide information from the virtual mobile object, for example, theinformation processing section 350 may continue to monitor this virtualmobile object while performing a process to provide dummy information orthe like.

The judging section 340 may be operable to judge whether the firstmobile object 12 is a real mobile object based on the first sensorinformation, on a condition that the first mobile object 12 has beenidentified as not being a virtual mobile object. In this way, the system100 according to the present embodiment can efficiently manage aplurality of mobile objects, without performing redundant spoofingjudgments. Furthermore, since the system 100 can monitor causes ofunstable operations, sources of reliability reduction, and the like inthe system, the system 100 can quickly adapt even when a virtual mobileobject begins abnormal operation.

FIG. 18 shows an exemplary hardware configuration of a computeraccording to the embodiment of the invention. A program that isinstalled in the computer 800 can cause the computer 800 to function asor perform operations associated with apparatuses of the embodiments ofthe present invention or one or more sections (including modules,components, elements, etc.) thereof, and/or cause the computer 800 toperform processes of the embodiments of the present invention or stepsthereof. Such a program may be executed by the CPU 800-12 to cause thecomputer 800 to perform certain operations associated with some or allof the blocks of flowcharts and block diagrams described herein.

The computer 800 according to the present embodiment includes a CPU800-12, a RAM 800-14, a graphics controller 800-16, and a display device800-18, which are mutually connected by a host controller 800-10. Thecomputer 800 also includes input/output units such as a communicationinterface 800-22, a hard disk drive 800-24, a DVD-ROM drive 800-26 andan IC card drive, which are connected to the host controller 800-10 viaan input/output controller 800-20. The computer also includes legacyinput/output units such as a ROM 800-30 and a keyboard 800-42, which areconnected to the input/output controller 800-20 through an input/outputchip 800-40.

The CPU 800-12 operates according to programs stored in the ROM 800-30and the RAM 800-14, thereby controlling each unit. The graphicscontroller 800-16 obtains image data generated by the CPU 800-12 on aframe buffer or the like provided in the RAM 800-14 or in itself, andcauses the image data to be displayed on the display device 800-18.

The communication interface 800-22 communicates with other electronicdevices via a network 800-50. The hard disk drive 800-24 stores programsand data used by the CPU 800-12 within the computer 800. The DVD-ROMdrive 800-26 reads the programs or the data from the DVD-ROM 800-01, andprovides the hard disk drive 800-24 with the programs or the data viathe RAM 800-14. The IC card drive reads programs and data from an ICcard, and/or writes programs and data into the IC card.

The ROM 800-30 stores therein a boot program or the like executed by thecomputer 800 at the time of activation, and/or a program depending onthe hardware of the computer 800. The input/output chip 800-40 may alsoconnect various input/output units via a parallel port, a serial port, akeyboard port, a mouse port, and the like to the input/output controller800-20.

A program is provided by computer readable media such as the DVD-ROM800-01 or the IC card. The program is read from the computer readablemedia, installed into the hard disk drive 800-24, RAM 800-14, or ROM800-30, which are also examples of computer readable media, and executedby the CPU 800-12. The information processing described in theseprograms is read into the computer 800, resulting in cooperation betweena program and the above-mentioned various types of hardware resources.An apparatus or method may be constituted by realizing the operation orprocessing of information in accordance with the usage of the computer800.

For example, when communication is performed between the computer 800and an external device, the CPU 800-12 may execute a communicationprogram loaded onto the RAM 800-14 to instruct communication processingto the communication interface 800-22, based on the processing describedin the communication program. The communication interface 800-22, undercontrol of the CPU 800-12, reads transmission data stored on atransmission buffering region provided in a recording medium such as theRAM 800-14, the hard disk drive 800-24, the DVD-ROM 800-01, or the ICcard, and transmits the read transmission data to network 800-50 orwrites reception data received from network 800-50 to a receptionbuffering region or the like provided on the recording medium.

In addition, the CPU 800-12 may cause all or a necessary portion of afile or a database to be read into the RAM 800-14, the file or thedatabase having been stored in an external recording medium such as thehard disk drive 800-24, the DVD-ROM drive 800-26 (DVD-ROM 800-01), theIC card, etc., and perform various types of processing on the data onthe RAM 800-14. The CPU 800-12 may then write back the processed data tothe external recording medium.

Various types of information, such as various types of programs, data,tables, and databases, may be stored in the recording medium to undergoinformation processing. The CPU 800-12 may perform various types ofprocessing on the data read from the RAM 800-14, which includes varioustypes of operations, processing of information, condition judging,conditional branch, unconditional branch, search/replace of information,etc., as described throughout this disclosure and designated by aninstruction sequence of programs, and writes the result back to the RAM800-14. In addition, the CPU 800-12 may search for information in afile, a database, etc., in the recording medium. For example, when aplurality of entries, each having an attribute value of a firstattribute is associated with an attribute value of a second attribute,are stored in the recording medium, the CPU 800-12 may search for anentry matching the condition whose attribute value of the firstattribute is designated, from among the plurality of entries, and readsthe attribute value of the second attribute stored in the entry, therebyobtaining the attribute value of the second attribute associated withthe first attribute satisfying the predetermined condition.

The above-explained program or software modules may be stored in thecomputer readable media on or near the computer 800. In addition, arecording medium such as a hard disk or a RAM provided in a serversystem connected to a dedicated communication network or the Internetcan be used as the computer readable media, thereby providing theprogram to the computer 800 via the network.

The programs described herein are identified based upon the applicationfor which they are implemented in a specific embodiment of theinvention. However, it should be appreciated that any particular programnomenclature herein is used merely for convenience, and thus theinvention should not be limited to use solely in any specificapplication identified and/or implied by such nomenclature.

The flowchart and block diagrams in the Figures illustrate thearchitecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementationsof systems, methods and computer program products according to variousembodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in theflowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portionof code, which comprises one or more executable instructions forimplementing the specified logical function(s). It should also be notedthat, in some alternative implementations, the functions noted in theblock may occur out of the order noted in the figures. For example, twoblocks shown in succession may, in fact, be executed substantiallyconcurrently, or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverseorder, depending upon the functionality involved. It will also be notedthat each block of the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, andcombinations of blocks in the block diagrams and/or flowchartillustration, can be implemented by special purpose hardware-basedsystems that perform the specified functions or acts, or combinations ofspecial purpose hardware and computer instructions.

The present invention may be a system, a method, and/or a computerprogram product at any possible technical detail level of integration.The computer program product may include a computer readable storagemedium (or media) having computer readable program instructions thereonfor causing a processor to carry out aspects of the present invention.

The computer readable storage medium can be a tangible device that canretain and store instructions for use by an instruction executiondevice. The computer readable storage medium may be, for example, but isnot limited to, an electronic storage device, a magnetic storage device,an optical storage device, an electromagnetic storage device, asemiconductor storage device, or any suitable combination of theforegoing. A non-exhaustive list of more specific examples of thecomputer readable storage medium includes the following: a portablecomputer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), aread-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROMor Flash memory), a static random access memory (SRAM), a portablecompact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), a digital versatile disk (DVD),a memory stick, a floppy disk, a mechanically encoded device such aspunch-cards or raised structures in a groove having instructionsrecorded thereon, and any suitable combination of the foregoing. Acomputer readable storage medium, as used herein, is not to be construedas being transitory signals per se, such as radio waves or other freelypropagating electromagnetic waves, electromagnetic waves propagatingthrough a waveguide or other transmission media (e.g., light pulsespassing through a fiber-optic cable), or electrical signals transmittedthrough a wire.

Computer readable program instructions described herein can bedownloaded to respective computing/processing devices from a computerreadable storage medium or to an external computer or external storagedevice via a network, for example, the Internet, a local area network, awide area network and/or a wireless network. The network may comprisecopper transmission cables, optical transmission fibers, wirelesstransmission, routers, firewalls, switches, gateway computers and/oredge servers. A network adapter card or network interface in eachcomputing/processing device receives computer readable programinstructions from the network and forwards the computer readable programinstructions for storage in a computer readable storage medium withinthe respective computing/processing device.

Computer readable program instructions for carrying out operations ofthe present invention may be assembler instructions,instruction-set-architecture (ISA) instructions, machine instructions,machine dependent instructions, microcode, firmware instructions,state-setting data, configuration data for integrated circuitry, oreither source code or object code written in any combination of one ormore programming languages, including an object oriented programminglanguage such as Smalltalk, C++, or the like, and procedural programminglanguages, such as the “C” programming language or similar programminglanguages. The computer readable program instructions may executeentirely on the user's computer, partly on the user's computer, as astand-alone software package, partly on the user's computer and partlyon a remote computer or entirely on the remote computer or server. Inthe latter scenario, the remote computer may be connected to the user'scomputer through any type of network, including a local area network(LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to anexternal computer (for example, through the Internet using an InternetService Provider). In some embodiments, electronic circuitry including,for example, programmable logic circuitry, field-programmable gatearrays (FPGA), or programmable logic arrays (PLA) may execute thecomputer readable program instructions by utilizing state information ofthe computer readable program instructions to personalize the electroniccircuitry, in order to perform aspects of the present invention.

Aspects of the present invention are described herein with reference toflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus(systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of theinvention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchartillustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in theflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented bycomputer readable program instructions.

These computer readable program instructions may be provided to aprocessor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, orother programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, suchthat the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computeror other programmable data processing apparatus, create means forimplementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks. These computer readable program instructionsmay also be stored in a computer readable storage medium that can directa computer, a programmable data processing apparatus, and/or otherdevices to function in a particular manner, such that the computerreadable storage medium having instructions stored therein comprises anarticle of manufacture including instructions which implement aspects ofthe function/act specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram blockor blocks.

The computer readable program instructions may also be loaded onto acomputer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other deviceto cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer,other programmable apparatus or other device to produce a computerimplemented process, such that the instructions which execute on thecomputer, other programmable apparatus, or other device implement thefunctions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block orblocks.

The flowchart and block diagrams in the Figures illustrate thearchitecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementationsof systems, methods, and computer program products according to variousembodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in theflowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portionof instructions, which comprises one or more executable instructions forimplementing the specified logical function(s). In some alternativeimplementations, the functions noted in the blocks may occur out of theorder noted in the Figures. For example, two blocks shown in successionmay, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks maysometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon thefunctionality involved. It will also be noted that each block of theblock diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, and combinations of blocksin the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, can be implementedby special purpose hardware-based systems that perform the specifiedfunctions or acts or carry out combinations of special purpose hardwareand computer instructions.

While steps of the disclosed method and components of the disclosedsystems and environments have been sequentially or serially identifiedusing numbers and letters, such numbering or lettering is not anindication that such steps must be performed in the order recited, andis merely provided to facilitate clear referencing of the method'ssteps. Furthermore, steps of the method may be performed in parallel toperform their described functionality.

While the embodiments of the present invention have been described, thetechnical scope of the invention is not limited to the above describedembodiments. It is apparent to persons skilled in the art that variousalterations and improvements can be added to the above-describedembodiments. It is also apparent from the scope of the claims that theembodiments added with such alterations or improvements can be includedin the technical scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for management of a movement of mobileobjects, the method comprising: managing, by a first computing system, aplurality of mobile objects moving within a geographic space, whereinmanaging the plurality of mobile objects comprises assisting withmovement of the plurality of mobile objects; and determining whether afirst mobile object among the plurality of mobile objects is a realmobile object based on a first sensor information received from thefirst mobile object, wherein the first sensor information includesposition information of the first mobile object detected by the firstmobile object; and based on determining that the first mobile object isthe real mobile object, using information received from the first mobileobject in managing the plurality of mobile objects moving within thegeographic space, wherein determining whether a first mobile objectamong the plurality of mobile objects is a real mobile object includesdetermining whether the first mobile object is a real mobile objectbased on an estimation error of the first sensor information.
 2. Themethod according to claim 1, further comprising: determining anestimated position of the first mobile object by matching the positioninformation of the first mobile object with geographic data, determiningwhether a first mobile object among the plurality of mobile objects is areal mobile object comprises calculating the estimation error of thefirst sensor information from a position corresponding to the positioninformation of the first mobile object and the estimated position. 3.The method according to claim 2, further comprising: acquiring a normalerror range associated with the position of the first mobile object,wherein determining whether a first mobile object among the plurality ofmobile objects is a real mobile object includes determining that thefirst mobile object is not a real mobile object, on a condition that theestimation error of the first sensor information is outside the normalerror range.
 4. The method according to claim 3, further comprising:storing the normal error range for every position in the geographicspace in a context database, based on an estimation error of positioninformation detected by at least one mobile object among the pluralityof mobile objects based on the at least one mobile object having movedin the geographic space.
 5. The method according to claim 4, whereinstoring the normal error range for every position in the geographicspace comprises independently storing information for each of at leastone of: a type of the at least one mobile object, a model of the atleast one mobile object, and a condition of the position.
 6. The methodaccording to claim 1, wherein determining whether a first mobile objectamong the plurality of mobile objects is a real mobile object includesdetermining that the first mobile object is not a real mobile object, inresponse to a position of the first mobile object overlapping at thesame timing with a position of a second mobile object among theplurality of mobile objects.
 7. The method according to claim 1, whereindetermining whether a first mobile object among the plurality of mobileobjects is a real mobile object includes determining whether the firstmobile object is a real mobile object based on a result of a comparisonbetween behavior of the first mobile object and behavior of a secondmobile object positioned within a predetermined distance of and on thesame route as the first mobile object among the plurality of mobileobjects.
 8. The method according to claim 1, wherein determining whethera first mobile object among the plurality of mobile objects is a realmobile object includes determining that the first mobile object is areal mobile object, in response to the first mobile object beingdetected at a position corresponding to the position information of thefirst mobile object according to a sensor provided in the geographicspace or in a second mobile object among the plurality of mobileobjects.
 9. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:requesting that a second mobile object among the plurality of mobileobjects checks whether the first mobile object is present at a positioncorresponding to the position information of the first mobile object inresponse to a judgment that the first mobile object is possibly not areal mobile object.
 10. The method according to claim 1, whereindetermining whether a first mobile object among the plurality of mobileobjects is a real mobile object further comprises: identifying whetherthe first mobile object is a virtual mobile object that has beenregistered in advance; and determining whether the first mobile objectis a real mobile object based on determining that the first mobileobject is identified as not being a virtual mobile object.
 11. Acomputer system for management of a movement of mobile objects, thecomputer system comprising: a processor, a computer-readable tangiblestorage device, and program instructions stored on computer-readabletangible storage device for execution by the processor, the programinstructions comprising: managing, by a first computing system, aplurality of mobile objects moving within a geographic space, whereinmanaging the plurality of mobile objects comprises assisting withmovement of the plurality of mobile objects; and determining whether afirst mobile object among the plurality of mobile objects is a realmobile object based on a first sensor information received from thefirst mobile object, wherein the first sensor information includesposition information of the first mobile object detected by the firstmobile object; and based on determining that the first mobile object isthe real mobile object, using information received from the first mobileobject in managing the plurality of mobile objects moving within thegeographic space, wherein determining whether a first mobile objectamong the plurality of mobile objects is a real mobile object includesdetermining whether the first mobile object is a real mobile objectbased on an estimation error of the first sensor information.
 12. Thecomputer system according to claim 11, further comprising: performinginformation processing for each of the plurality of mobile objectscomprising processing information for a second mobile object among theplurality of mobile objects while excluding a presence of the firstmobile object, in response to the first mobile object being judged asnot being real.
 13. The computer system according to claim 11, whereindetermining whether a first mobile object among the plurality of mobileobjects is a real mobile object includes determining that the firstmobile object is not a real mobile object, in response to a position ofthe first mobile object overlapping at the same timing with a positionof a second mobile object among the plurality of mobile objects.
 14. Thecomputer system according to claim 11, wherein determining whether afirst mobile object among the plurality of mobile objects is a realmobile object includes determining whether the first mobile object is areal mobile object based on a result of a comparison between behavior ofthe first mobile object and behavior of a second mobile objectpositioned within a predetermined distance of and on the same route asthe first mobile object among the plurality of mobile objects.
 15. Thecomputer system according to claim 11, wherein determining whether afirst mobile object among the plurality of mobile objects is a realmobile object includes determining that the first mobile object is areal mobile object, in response to the first mobile object beingdetected at a position corresponding to the position information of thefirst mobile object according to a sensor provided in the geographicspace or in a second mobile object among the plurality of mobileobjects.
 16. The computer system according to claim 11, furthercomprising: requesting that a second mobile object among the pluralityof mobile objects checks whether the first mobile object is present at aposition corresponding to the position information of the first mobileobject in response to a judgment that the first mobile object ispossibly not a real mobile object.
 17. The computer system according toclaim 11, wherein determining whether a first mobile object among theplurality of mobile objects is a real mobile object further comprises:identifying whether the first mobile object is a virtual mobile objectthat has been registered in advance; and determining whether the firstmobile object is a real mobile object based on determining that thefirst mobile object is identified as not being a virtual mobile object.18. The computer system according to claim 11, further comprising:determining an estimated position of the first mobile object by matchingthe position information of the first mobile object with geographicdata, determining whether a first mobile object among the plurality ofmobile objects is a real mobile object comprises calculating theestimation error of the first sensor information from a positioncorresponding to the position information of the first mobile object andthe estimated position.
 19. A computer program product for management ofa movement of mobile objects, the computer program product comprising: acomputer-readable storage device and program instructions stored oncomputer-readable storage device, the program instructions comprising:managing, by a first computing system, a plurality of mobile objectsmoving within a geographic space, wherein managing the plurality ofmobile objects comprises assisting with movement of the plurality ofmobile objects; and determining whether a first mobile object among theplurality of mobile objects is a real mobile object based on a firstsensor information received from the first mobile object, wherein thefirst sensor information includes position information of the firstmobile object detected by the first mobile object; and based ondetermining that the first mobile object is the real mobile object,using information received from the first mobile object in managing theplurality of mobile objects moving within the geographic space, whereindetermining whether a first mobile object among the plurality of mobileobjects is a real mobile object includes determining whether the firstmobile object is a real mobile object based on an estimation error ofthe first sensor information.
 20. The computer program product accordingto claim 19, further comprising: performing information processing foreach of the plurality of mobile objects comprising processinginformation for a second mobile object among the plurality of mobileobjects while excluding a presence of the first mobile object, inresponse to the first mobile object being judged as not being real.